A question I am asked often multiple times a day on sales calls is,”What about Sigfox and LoRa?” RPMA, or Random Phase Multiple Access, is often compared to, or thought to be on par with, competing unlicensed low-power, wide-area networks such as Sigfox and LoRa. I am writing today to tell you why that is far from the truth.

RPMA was created from the ground up to be the simplest, the most robust, and the most secure network for machine to machine communication. It is the only network purpose-built from the ground up to serve machines exclusively.

Let’s start with simplest. What if I told you there was a singular wireless network that could cover the earth (and no I’m not talking about Skynet Mr. Terminator)? With near infinite scalability, extremely long range, and a spectrum that is available in every country on the planet, RPMA can do just that. Device makers could create a single SKU that could operate on any part of the planet. RPMA runs on the 2.4 GHz band for the very reason of being able to cover the world with a single network. Sub-GHz competitors may point to the fact that sub-GHz frequencies can inherently penetrate further than a 2.4 GHz wave. The point, however, is moot for RPMA because with the combination of RPMA’s processing gain, receive sensitivity, and antenna diversity, it boasts the highest link budget in the wireless industry. That means RPMA broadcasts further and penetrate deeper than any sub GHz competition. Lastly, with a network built from the beginning to be able to scale to billions of endpoints, it creates a simple job for product managers. One SKU can serve any customer in the world, under any RPMA network, at any device count.

Let’s talk robustness. A single RPMA access point can demodulate and receive up to 1000 simultaneous transmissions over the network. There is virtually no such thing as a collision on an RPMA network. That fact coupled with a 100 percent message acknowledgment rate will leave even the most skeptical feeling secure and satisfied. That vastly overshadows competing unlicensed low power wide area networks that do not even have full bi-directional communication for message acknowledgment, and cannot receive two simultaneous signals without a collision and a resend.

Let’s finish with security. Imagine a small Internet of Things device, a tracker, that serves the purpose of parents being able to know the location of their children. One may reasonably suppose that the location of the child should be sent over a secure, encrypted network. The National Institute of Standards and Technology has defined a 128-bit Advanced Encryption Standard. That means that an additional 128 bits or 16 bytes must be transmitted with each message to create a secure digital signature. Sigfox provides virtually no encryption (and cannot with a fixed 12 byte message size), and LoRa provides only a 32-bit encryption. Both are well below the recommended standards. RPMA has a flexible packet size and easily supports 128 bit encryption just to name one of many security features built in.

While many may presently associate RPMA with the networks of Sigfox and LoRa, this will dramatically change as more and more familiarize themselves with the technologies behind the marketing.

What sort of security is embedded in RPMA? How secure is the technology? Are there any security certificates in place for the end device to the network? What sort of disaster recovery and/or hacking plans do we have in place?

So, you may be thinking as you review RPMA, that it operates in the 2.4GHz spectrum, which is the same frequency as my Wi-Fi in my home. You then ask yourself why you would look to buy another technology when you already have Wi-Fi and just learned that Google is coming to your city? Why should you look at Ingenu that will soon be coming to your city as well?

You know that you use Wi-Fi, literally every day and it gets the job done, right?

Well, not exactly, if you take a deeper look at how RPMA was designed and what it was built for. You will quickly realize all the benefits that RPMA has to offer. Ingenu is building the the Machine Network™, which is a pretty straightforward name for its purpose – for machines. This means it was built for sensors boxes gathering information and data and then reporting as designed. It is not built for you, your family members or a few kids to stream YouTube or read the latest new blogs.

RPMA was built with two key and major differentiating factors – reliability and security.

Ingenu has been in the IoT/M2M business since 2008 and has worked with some very sensitive data. Perhaps you have seen our work with oil and gas lines, for instance. Even though RPMA operates on the 2.4 GHz band, our technology was designed and engineered with reliability as a key component, with over 99% uptime. Now, Wi-Fi is pretty consistent, but on average, in your home or at work, how often does it not operate consistently? I know that if someone is down the street working on a gas line or perhaps a water line and cuts the line, I am down for the afternoon. Or, if we have a good thunderstorm and my power goes out, I am also done for that day or perhaps another. Wi-Fi has great speeds and very easy to access and use but what happens when the lights go out? You need the reliability of a network built from the ground up. RPMA is a network topology which means it is built similar to a cellular network, but with a lot less infrastructure and congestion. The network blankets an area, in some cases 300 square miles per access point, and is on all the time talking to the machines they support.

Let’s now discuss the other key factor I mentioned above, security. I feel like I should say that three times – security, security, and security. In a world of numerous hacks, malware and viruses on any given message, how do you protect your information and sensitive data? Do you think free public Wi-Fi will have enough security to protect you and your business from an attack? RPMA, although on the same frequency as Wi-Fi, has engineered and 32 patents around the security and design of how we communicate through this crowded highway of spectrum. Ingenu’s technical teams have perfected and tested this over the last eight-plus years. Come take a look download a white paper and get your inner geek on to learn more!

Heartbleed. Conficker. The Morris Worm. These hacks, viruses, or worms wrought mayhem on millions of PCs and servers connected to the Internet. Eeek! Luckily, after they were detected patches were developed that […]

Caring about security is a reflection of the value of the things that should be secured and what those things are connected to. That is why Ingenu designed RPMA from the ground up to have enterprise grade security. RPMA provides six security guarantees that have been used and trusted for years by highly regulated industries such as utilities and oil and gas companies. The Internet of Things (IoT) is supposed to increase our ability to control and monitor the world around us in an intelligent and often automated way. But as those connected devices increase, and become ever more interconnected, the importance of security increases. Interconnected devices are as strong as the weakest link.

So when considering security on the Internet of Things, think about how valuable your entire system of connected things is. If you are going so far as to invest in devices that are connected, then why leave off security? Investing in IoT connectivity for your business or home without security is like buying a car without locks. “But the car does what I need it to do! Security is no big deal right?” Except that the car could easily be stolen and do what somebody else needs it to do. And with IoT connectivity, the data collected is valuable, and could be used to compromise your business or worse, without your even knowing it until it is too late. No matter the data being collected, there are other patterns of your business that could be gleaned from your data collection habits and business operations.

Your data and the system that supports that data is highly valuable, don’t leave it exposed by choosing connectivity without robust security. RPMA has you covered.

Secure by Design To many people, security is an afterthought. When we created RPMA, security was integral to our mission. RPMA technology offers six state-of-the-art security guarantees: Mutual authenticationMessage integrity and […]